What we look at
- Where time is spent reconstructing status that no system carries.
- Where money leaves a job or a file without a record.
- Where two systems disagree, and a person is the reconciliation.
- Where a manager is the integration layer between people and software.
Why this step
A constraint named in product language ('we need a portal', 'we need AI') hides the stall. We write it as a delay, a leak, a handoff, or a missing picture, and we say who pays for it. That sentence is what the rest of the file is judged against.
What we do
- Write the constraint in the language of the week.
- Say who pays for it: time, margin, customers, or a few key people.
- Say what would change if the process carried that fact itself.
What we do not do
- A feature list dressed up as a diagnosis.
- A percentage invented for the website or the slide.
- A constraint so broad that any software would seem to fit.
Related problems
The other steps
How a file actually runs
Discovery, a scoped build, then scheduled reviews. That is the calendar of the file.
Describe the process as it runs. A specification is optional.